Kyle
Livingstone is a senior first baseman from Ft. Worth, Texas. He was voted to
the 2010 preseason all-Southland Conference second team. He batted .314 a season
ago with 12 doubles, five home runs and 34 RBI. Livingstone appeared in 49 games
with 39 starts. He walked 14 times and struck out 15 in 156 at-bats. Livingstone
was hit by seven pitches and posted an on-base percentage of .391. He was also 3
for 5 in stolen base attempts. Livingstone attended Kansas State and Navarro
Junior College before arriving in San Marcos. He is majoring in business.

It
was a pretty big week for the Bobcat baseball program. The final touches were
completed on our newly-renovated locker room that took us from a below average
set-up to probably one of the best locker rooms in the Southland Conference. We
replaced our 40-inch box TV and outdated speaker system with three 63-inch flat
screen HD televisions. We also got two X-Boxes and a surround sound system
installed. New carpet was put in place, along with six theatre-style leather
recliners.

The lockers are now
all wood and look pretty sweet. It was kind of a pain not being able to have a
locker room for a couple of months, but after seeing the final results it was
worth it.

This is just another
step in the right direction for the Texas State baseball program. As players, we
can take pride in our locker room and use it as a great recruiting tool. We know
this didn’t happen overnight and we appreciate all the time, hard work and money
that went into the project. Derek Grice oversaw most of the renovation and his
staff made the locker room possible. We also had some very generous boosters
that provided the finances, so to everyone that played a role, we really
appreciate it and the results are amazing. Thank you again.

This past week we
headed up to Lubbock, Texas, to play Texas Tech. It was definitely one of the
worst bus rides I have experienced in my four years of playing college baseball.
The ride up was long, boring and everyone wanted to get off the bus. When we
arrived, there was snow on the ground and the weather looked pretty miserable.
There was some doubt about the possibility of playing, but Texas Tech has a turf
field, so the weather didn’t affect much.

On
the actual game day, the weather warmed up to about 70 degrees. Oh, how we love
Texas weather. I guess the temperature change came over Bret Atwood too, because
on game day, he decided to be the most annoying person in the world, but only
towards me. Bret knows I love my naps and don’t really like to be messed with
when I wake up. I had just taken a pretty solid power nap and he decided to hit
me, talk my ear off and do anything he could think of to annoy me. It didn’t
stop on the bus, either. On the field, he decided he would throw water at me
while I was stretching and I had to threaten him. I told him he would go 0 for
4, but we would still win.

Well, Bret didn’t go 0
for 4. He actually had one of the biggest games of his career, going 5 for 6 and
showed his power. We rarely see that side of Bret, since he’s such a great
bunter. We ended up beating Tech and got our first win over a Big 12 opponent
this season. After the game was over we were joking about how annoying Bret was.
I said that I didn’t care that he went 5 for 6, I couldn’t take his annoying
ways. Coach Harrington overheard me and said ‘He didn’t mind what annoying thing
Bret did, as long he continued to get five hits every game.’ So, I guess as long
as Bret is hot, I’ll let his annoying self hang out with me.

After the game was
over, we had a pretty quick turnaround for showers and food, because we had an
eight-hour bus ride ahead of us. Each seat had to share a Domino’s Pizza, and
this is where things get interesting. We had been driving for about an hour,
when one of the funniest, most disgusting things happened. There was a lot of
commotion, because some of the guys on the back of the bus were playing cards
and blocking the bathroom and Colton Turner NEEDED the bathroom. It turns out,
he had gotten sick from the pizza and needed to throw up, but since we were
blocking the door, Garret Carruth took a mouthful of throw up all down his back
and arms. The mess was everywhere: on Carruth’s arm, pants, shirt, on the
cooler, the floor and even Clint Vest’s phone. After we got over the shock of
what just happened, we yelled for Henry (the best bus driver ever) to pull over,
immediately. I do not handle the sight and or smell of throw up very well, so
luckily I got off the bus as soon as it stopped. I made the mistake of looking
down and almost lost it. Shawn, our athletic trainer, got everything clean up
and Carruth changed his clothes and left the smelly ones on the side of the
road. I actually think we left the cooler on the side of the road, too. Garret
handled the situation like a champ, because he didn’t freak out like most of us
would have. We finally made it back to San Marcos, but made sure there was open
path to the bathroom for the remainder of the seven hours. This is definitely
the top story and funniest moment of the season, so far.

We
hit the road again to play Sam Houston State in Huntsville, Texas, for the
weekend. Sam Houston is a big rivalry series for us since they beat us in the
Southland Conference Tournament last year. We swung the bats really well and
scored a lot of runs to take the series. Saturday’s game was cancelled due to
bad weather, so we played a doubleheader on Sunday. This brought back memories
of junior college ball, when doubleheaders were an every-week occurrence. We
knew it was going to be a long day, because not only did we have to play two
nine-inning games, the weather was terrible. There was a 30-mph wind constantly
blowing during both games. Despite the weather, the team did a really good job
performing. The day was highlighted by Jason Martinson’s cycle and game-winning
home run in the first game of the doubleheader. With one out in the ninth, Jason
blasted an opposite field two-run homer that gave us the eventual win. As he
crossed the plate to celebrate, he said “I got my cycle.” It was a pretty
special thing what he did and he was recognized by the Southland Conference as
Hitter of the Week. Nice job J-Mart.

Well the season is a
grind right now. We are playing a lot of games and trying to fit in some
studying where we can. The doubleheader was pretty tough on our bodies but we
will be ready for another conference series at home this weekend against Lamar.
We really have a great group of guys and they are a lot of fun to play with. We
still haven’t played a complete game where our pitching and hitting were on, but
we are still beating people up. Once we can consistently play a complete game,
this will be a fun team to watch.